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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dion Joseph is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active senior lead officer in the notorious downtown Los Angeles District known as Skid Row. He's here to share another story

with us. This one begins with Dion visiting a juvenile detention center. Let's take a listen. So I go to the first day and I go through the gates and they buzz me in and I'm looking. And it looks just like a prison yard. You have the Hispanics working out over here. You have the blacks working out and shooting dice over here. And I'm like, oh my God, these kids are going to hate me.

And just something in my spirit said, don't worry about just telling me you love them. They brought the kids into the class. Some of them thought I was there to arrest them. I said, calm down. I don't even want to know your names. I'm here for one reason, and that's to tell you, I love you. And some of them laughed at me. I said, you can laugh all you want, but I love you, no matter what you do or what you say.

I figuratively put down my bag. love you. And some of them laughed at me. I said, you can laugh all you want, but I love you,

no matter what you do or what you say. I figuratively put down my badge and gun, and I told them my

story, and then I made them trust me. And then I started bringing in these mentors. I brought

him my wife, whose brother ended up going to a prison, sadly, and talking about the impact of your, on your family.

And what they told me was, after about several months of me doing that and taking them on a

tour of Skid Row, their grades went up to grade levels, and they accredited a police officer

for it. These are the things that the media doesn't talk about. And of course, I don't brag about it. My faith, I don't brag about the good things that I do. I only feel the need to talk about it because everybody today is suffering from what we call availability bias. And their only thing being availed to them about police officers is the negative. We have 800,000 men and women who are

doing an incredible job. But of course, in every profession, there's a negative exception.

...